Disclaimer: I do not own FF8 or any of the characters from FF8.
AN: Whoa! I've had a frickin' busy week so sorry for not updating =) Hey, gimme a break! It was Christmas, then my Birthday, and now it's New Years! Well, anyways, that's the past and this is the present. Thanks for all of you who reviewed that last chapter. Here's chapter 7.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter 7: Young Killer
I stood rooted to the spot for a few seconds still staring at Emi and Zone sideways. Their metasite armors were both on and they looked like opposite sides of the spectrum.
Emi's metasite was blue. Not like my own, her blue was lighter, almost powdery. She was slim and had two blades arching from each shoulder. Her metablade was a straight sword with a duel-edge. She held it in reverse grip meaning if she held out her arm, the blade would be pointing to the ground. Some fighters prefer to use a reverse grip because it throws off their opponents. It's much harder to use but if mastered, it is deadly in a duel.
Zone on the other hand was dark red, like maroon. He sported a trio of spikes on one shoulder and armor plates on the other. His head spike was also very short. He was quite big for his age although not Raijin size. Zone used double short swords. With two weapons, a fighter can execute faster moves and keep a constant barrage of attacks on the enemy. It also takes a special type of person to be able to use duel weapons. If the person is not able to coordinate both arms, he will likely be cut to pieces by himself or his opponent.
THUMP THUMP THUMP
Footsteps thundered down the staircase. Well, they were trying to be quiet but it was really loud to metasite hearing. I quickly faced the stairs and had Lionheart pointed straight out.
"What the hell?" it was a thug and he had his gun ready to shoot. He pointed it straight at me but it was too late. All he saw was my salute and then he no longer had the physical or mental ability to pull the trigger on his weapon.
"Come on" I told Emi and Zone.
"Alright, we're coming." was Zone's reply.
We carefully scaled the stairs and as we got closer to the second floor we could hear voices.
"What? They're sending KIDS against us?"
"Yeah, you saw them outside. They're definitely not full size."
"B-but, they're like toddlers! They couldn't have killed Brent." "I don't know. You heard the gunshots down there. Brent didn't report back so I don't know. I sent Ji down there to check on him but I he's not back yet."
"Shit shit shit, they're just kids."
We were one flight of stairs from the landing of the second floor. It would be a slim hallway with two rooms both filled with gang members. I turned to Emi and Zone.
"I'll take the room on the left and you two can take the one on the right." I said.
They both nodded a little grimly and then we ran up the last flight of stairs.
I could feel Emi and Zone on my heels and I barged into the room on the left. Once again, I did the salute Kiros told me to do. Then I started the massacre. The men inside had a split second to react before I was on them. There were about ten men crowded in that one room. They poured out from the kitchen, the bathroom, everywhere.
I scanned everyone in the room and what weapons each of my enemies carried. Most of them were guns which I didn't care much about. What I had to worry about were the daggers and long knives some of the gang members wielded. Apparently, they didn't have enough guns.
I counted three guys carrying foot long knives and one guy with a modified hunting knife. I had to take out hunting knife guy first. I made a bee-line for that one guy and cut down anybody in my way. Gunshots were ringing in my ears but I was moving too fast for them to shoot me. I could see four men in the way of the knife guy. I saw it in slow motion as they raised their handguns and pulled the trigger. Ducking under the bullets that came whizzing at my head, I ran straight at them and brought Lionheart straight across butchering all four of them with one swipe. The blood ran freely and painted the wall following my blade.
I knocked the four dead bodies aside and opened up my way to knife guy. I saw him open his mouth in fear and his eyes went wide. As to be expected, the guy had no technique at all and he just sort of swung blindly with his knife at me. I dispatched him with a clean cut across his neck.
I sensed people behind me and turned around while swinging my blade at head height. I managed to decapitate two of the three guys with the long knives.
CLICK
The familiar sound of a bullet about to fire.
BLAM!
I arched my back just in time as the bullet went whizzing by harmlessly lodging itself into the wall. I landed like a cat on the ground and quickly dashed aside as more bullets pummeled the floor. The gangsters had poor aim and clearly was not trained to use the gun since the reload was ruining his shots. I wall-walked my way towards him while his bullets flew everywhere. "What the f-" he said as I crawled along the blood spattered wall towards him. I then used Lionheart as a thrusting weapon and punctured his chest. Once the blade went in and out the other side, I twisted it and pulled the blade out horizontally in a full circle cutting the last knife guy behind me.
The room now looked like somebody took red paint and splashed it all over the place. Blood and dead bodies lay everywhere. I didn't envy the guys who would have to come in and look through the place for the drugs.
Turning back, I entered the room Emi and Zone were taking care of. I was surprised to see that they had apprehended some of them. Most of the gangsters in their room were just knocked out. There was far less carnage than the room in which I had just left. Emi and Zone could be seen at the other end of the room knocking the shit out of one of the guys who was still conscious.
"Where are the rest of you idiots?!" Zone asked the guy.
"I-I don't k-know! They're s-spread out all o-over!" he said
THUMP
Emi punched the guy in the gut hard enough to make him keel over but not hard enough to make him cough blood and die.
"A-alright! They're two floors up in the next building!" he said.
"Okay, one more question. How many are over there?" it was Emi's turn to ask.
"Around t-thirty!" he answered.
"Alrighty then!" Zone said. He hit the guy on the back of the neck and the guy passed out.
Both of them turned to me.
"You heard him. Next building, two floors up. Let's go!" Emi said. She was a great deal happier than before.
I just nodded. I had a stitch in my gut because of what I had seen. Emi and Zone only killed about two people each and it was probably because of blood loss. I had killed everybody in the room by ripping them apart.
I cast the thought out of my head and followed Emi and Zone out of the building and towards the second building where the rest of our enemies were waiting. Emi turned towards me as we were walking.
"I saw what you did to those other guys." she said quietly.
I don't know why, but she suddenly made me feel very embarrassed. Like I had done something I wasn't supposed to do and she caught me. I guess she saw the expression of shock on my face.
"It's alright. I understand that it's war. But I can't bring myself to kill people so brutally. We're all just kids. I admire you, really I do, you can forget about everything and do things that people way older than you can't even do." she said.
That came as a surprise. I just stood there thinking about that for awhile before I could answer.
"I guess...I've just seen death before so half of the hesitation's gone already." I said.
She nodded.
"When did you see death?" she asked.
This time, I hesitated. I wasn't sure if I should tell her. I didn't trust anyone but then something inside me told me I should let her know.
"M-my parents were killed when I was really young." I said. I almost choked on the words, like I didn't want to say them but they came out anyways.
Emi just kept walking and didn't say much for a while. Her head was down and I couldn't see any expression through those metasite eyes. Finally she spoke.
"I'm sorry." she said it in barely a whisper but clear enough so that I could hear it.
"Don't be. It's in the past so I like to put it behind me. Besides, I don't remember it too well now." I lied. I did remember. But somehow I couldn't bare to see her so sad like that so I lied.
"Oh...but still, that's really sad." she said.
I didn't say anything and we didn't speak for the rest of the trip. The two buildings were about a block apart and we sort of took our time since Squad A and B had to secure the second building first.
The second building was built the same way as the first one but the people inside acted very different. Nobody shot at us as we approached so we approached slowly but cautiously and I opened the front door.
It was quiet inside but there were clearly people since I could hear dull thudding from the upper levels. They seemed to be getting fainter though.
"Seems like they're moving up doesn't it?" I asked Zone.
"Yeah, my guess is that there were about two guys who just went up to floor number three." he said.
"Well, floor three it is then" said Emi.
We went up the stairs quickly this time since we were sure there was nobody on the second floor. But as we neared the third floor we could definitely hear people up there. They were trying to be quiet since they weren't talking and the sounds were more muffled meaning they were only shifting around.
"Looks like they're waiting for us." I said.
"They're all surrounding the corridor. Guess the two rooms weren't big enough to hold thirty people." said Zone.
"Well, let's go then." I gave the order and then I charged ahead of them.
For the moment I totally forgot about everything Emi and I just talked about and I was a monster. I ran up the stairs and took all of them by surprise. They planned an ambush, but instead I ambushed THEM.
This time most of the guys had knives. It didn't matter. They were no match for me.
I dashed straight through the corridor and slashed eight men in about two seconds. It wasn't hard because they were all crowded around the tight corridor. All I had to do was bring my blade across back and forth and the blood flowed freely. I saw one guy try to bury his dagger into my back and I used Lionheart as a defensive weapon by sticking it straight out. The guy's momentum carried him right through my blade and I basically shish ka bobbed him.
My enemies were slaughtered. I don't know how to explain it. It's like I was controlled but out of control. I kept my calm, but the rate at which the drug dealers were falling was insane. It was a bloodbath.
Emi and Zone didn't even have to do anything. I was four and a half feet, fifty five pounds of pure carnage. Anybody who got in my way would die.
As quickly as the killer instinct came, it disappeared. I turned back to Emi and Zone who were standing just above the stairs looking very dumbfounded.
"Sorry...I guess we can go then." I said.
They looked at me with wide eyes. I felt extremely uncomfortable so I just walked down the stairs. The stench of blood reeked from the corridor and I tried not to think about it. I just did what I was supposed to do.
We were walking back to where the transports had agreed to pick us up. It was closer than where we were dropped off but not directly to the second building. The reason being that the road close to the second building was so beaten up that it was almost unpassable.
"I was thinking, Squall. Maybe...if you'd like to of course...meet up with Zone and I at the park sometime?" Emi asked. I didn't expect the question at all after how ruthlessly I had acted.
"Sure" I said. I was just confused at the time and thought that accepting her offer would be the right thing to do.
"Cool, see you the next Open day at three? There's a few of us there and we usually go to the city for some ice cream." Zone didn't seem to mind either.
"Okay, three sounds good." I said. Open days were certain scheduled days where the cadets like us could go out and have some fun. We were restricted to go no further than the city which wasn't really a problem since there was tons of stuff to do in the city. I went out only once up to that point. The first Open day they had I went and it was the most boring day of my life so I never went on any of them ever again. Instead, I'd just stay at the Garden and train...yep I know, I was one hell of a loser...
After that we didn't talk much. But then again, the transports were almost right in front of our faces by that time so it was time to leave anyways.
I had a good time with Emi and Zone. I thought for a moment that Emi had been disgusted by my behavior but that didn't seem to be the case. For the first time in my life, I cared about what others thought about me. I didn't want Emi and Zone to shun me because of the slaughter I had created.
But boy would Ellone be happy...seems like I finally found some friends.
AN: 'kay, sorry once again for not updating...I promise the next chapter will be up quicker! Wanted this chappie to have a mixed bag sort of feel to it in terms of character emotion. Trust me, things will become a lot clearer later on! =P Please please please leave a review! SHOUT OUT TIME!
remote mine: Glad you enjoyed that chapter =) My guess is that you'd like this one too, it's along the same lines hahaha. Keep reading and keep reviewing! This story's still got a lot more to go!
Selphie Tilmitt-Kinneas : You'll probably find some errors in this chapter! I spread this chapter out so much, I'd start writing, stop, start, stop, etc. So I'm pretty sure this one is more messed up that the last! John Steiner has nothing to do with the Steiner in FF9...I have yet to play FF9 hahaha FF9, FFX-2 and FFXI are the only FF's I haven't played =P
Lugia-mew: Thanks for the compliment, but sorry for the slow update heh...Hope you like this chapter too!
Ari-Morrigan: Hopefully, you'll catch this chapter! Yeah, Rinoa's sister is going to play a huge role in this story. The whole story is going to get MUCH darker so this is just a small taste of what is to come. It is anything BUT light and cheery! But don't worry, things won't stay that way in the original metasite =P Thanks for the review!
Etherealist: It's alright, as long as you leave a review! Thanks for the compliment and hope you can get online more often!
angel-brokensorrow: Thanks a lot! That's an interesting tip, I tried it in this chapter so look out for it! As always, I encourage constructive criticism =)
That's all for now, and just wanted to wish everybody a late Happy New Year! Don't forget to review!
AN: Whoa! I've had a frickin' busy week so sorry for not updating =) Hey, gimme a break! It was Christmas, then my Birthday, and now it's New Years! Well, anyways, that's the past and this is the present. Thanks for all of you who reviewed that last chapter. Here's chapter 7.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter 7: Young Killer
I stood rooted to the spot for a few seconds still staring at Emi and Zone sideways. Their metasite armors were both on and they looked like opposite sides of the spectrum.
Emi's metasite was blue. Not like my own, her blue was lighter, almost powdery. She was slim and had two blades arching from each shoulder. Her metablade was a straight sword with a duel-edge. She held it in reverse grip meaning if she held out her arm, the blade would be pointing to the ground. Some fighters prefer to use a reverse grip because it throws off their opponents. It's much harder to use but if mastered, it is deadly in a duel.
Zone on the other hand was dark red, like maroon. He sported a trio of spikes on one shoulder and armor plates on the other. His head spike was also very short. He was quite big for his age although not Raijin size. Zone used double short swords. With two weapons, a fighter can execute faster moves and keep a constant barrage of attacks on the enemy. It also takes a special type of person to be able to use duel weapons. If the person is not able to coordinate both arms, he will likely be cut to pieces by himself or his opponent.
THUMP THUMP THUMP
Footsteps thundered down the staircase. Well, they were trying to be quiet but it was really loud to metasite hearing. I quickly faced the stairs and had Lionheart pointed straight out.
"What the hell?" it was a thug and he had his gun ready to shoot. He pointed it straight at me but it was too late. All he saw was my salute and then he no longer had the physical or mental ability to pull the trigger on his weapon.
"Come on" I told Emi and Zone.
"Alright, we're coming." was Zone's reply.
We carefully scaled the stairs and as we got closer to the second floor we could hear voices.
"What? They're sending KIDS against us?"
"Yeah, you saw them outside. They're definitely not full size."
"B-but, they're like toddlers! They couldn't have killed Brent." "I don't know. You heard the gunshots down there. Brent didn't report back so I don't know. I sent Ji down there to check on him but I he's not back yet."
"Shit shit shit, they're just kids."
We were one flight of stairs from the landing of the second floor. It would be a slim hallway with two rooms both filled with gang members. I turned to Emi and Zone.
"I'll take the room on the left and you two can take the one on the right." I said.
They both nodded a little grimly and then we ran up the last flight of stairs.
I could feel Emi and Zone on my heels and I barged into the room on the left. Once again, I did the salute Kiros told me to do. Then I started the massacre. The men inside had a split second to react before I was on them. There were about ten men crowded in that one room. They poured out from the kitchen, the bathroom, everywhere.
I scanned everyone in the room and what weapons each of my enemies carried. Most of them were guns which I didn't care much about. What I had to worry about were the daggers and long knives some of the gang members wielded. Apparently, they didn't have enough guns.
I counted three guys carrying foot long knives and one guy with a modified hunting knife. I had to take out hunting knife guy first. I made a bee-line for that one guy and cut down anybody in my way. Gunshots were ringing in my ears but I was moving too fast for them to shoot me. I could see four men in the way of the knife guy. I saw it in slow motion as they raised their handguns and pulled the trigger. Ducking under the bullets that came whizzing at my head, I ran straight at them and brought Lionheart straight across butchering all four of them with one swipe. The blood ran freely and painted the wall following my blade.
I knocked the four dead bodies aside and opened up my way to knife guy. I saw him open his mouth in fear and his eyes went wide. As to be expected, the guy had no technique at all and he just sort of swung blindly with his knife at me. I dispatched him with a clean cut across his neck.
I sensed people behind me and turned around while swinging my blade at head height. I managed to decapitate two of the three guys with the long knives.
CLICK
The familiar sound of a bullet about to fire.
BLAM!
I arched my back just in time as the bullet went whizzing by harmlessly lodging itself into the wall. I landed like a cat on the ground and quickly dashed aside as more bullets pummeled the floor. The gangsters had poor aim and clearly was not trained to use the gun since the reload was ruining his shots. I wall-walked my way towards him while his bullets flew everywhere. "What the f-" he said as I crawled along the blood spattered wall towards him. I then used Lionheart as a thrusting weapon and punctured his chest. Once the blade went in and out the other side, I twisted it and pulled the blade out horizontally in a full circle cutting the last knife guy behind me.
The room now looked like somebody took red paint and splashed it all over the place. Blood and dead bodies lay everywhere. I didn't envy the guys who would have to come in and look through the place for the drugs.
Turning back, I entered the room Emi and Zone were taking care of. I was surprised to see that they had apprehended some of them. Most of the gangsters in their room were just knocked out. There was far less carnage than the room in which I had just left. Emi and Zone could be seen at the other end of the room knocking the shit out of one of the guys who was still conscious.
"Where are the rest of you idiots?!" Zone asked the guy.
"I-I don't k-know! They're s-spread out all o-over!" he said
THUMP
Emi punched the guy in the gut hard enough to make him keel over but not hard enough to make him cough blood and die.
"A-alright! They're two floors up in the next building!" he said.
"Okay, one more question. How many are over there?" it was Emi's turn to ask.
"Around t-thirty!" he answered.
"Alrighty then!" Zone said. He hit the guy on the back of the neck and the guy passed out.
Both of them turned to me.
"You heard him. Next building, two floors up. Let's go!" Emi said. She was a great deal happier than before.
I just nodded. I had a stitch in my gut because of what I had seen. Emi and Zone only killed about two people each and it was probably because of blood loss. I had killed everybody in the room by ripping them apart.
I cast the thought out of my head and followed Emi and Zone out of the building and towards the second building where the rest of our enemies were waiting. Emi turned towards me as we were walking.
"I saw what you did to those other guys." she said quietly.
I don't know why, but she suddenly made me feel very embarrassed. Like I had done something I wasn't supposed to do and she caught me. I guess she saw the expression of shock on my face.
"It's alright. I understand that it's war. But I can't bring myself to kill people so brutally. We're all just kids. I admire you, really I do, you can forget about everything and do things that people way older than you can't even do." she said.
That came as a surprise. I just stood there thinking about that for awhile before I could answer.
"I guess...I've just seen death before so half of the hesitation's gone already." I said.
She nodded.
"When did you see death?" she asked.
This time, I hesitated. I wasn't sure if I should tell her. I didn't trust anyone but then something inside me told me I should let her know.
"M-my parents were killed when I was really young." I said. I almost choked on the words, like I didn't want to say them but they came out anyways.
Emi just kept walking and didn't say much for a while. Her head was down and I couldn't see any expression through those metasite eyes. Finally she spoke.
"I'm sorry." she said it in barely a whisper but clear enough so that I could hear it.
"Don't be. It's in the past so I like to put it behind me. Besides, I don't remember it too well now." I lied. I did remember. But somehow I couldn't bare to see her so sad like that so I lied.
"Oh...but still, that's really sad." she said.
I didn't say anything and we didn't speak for the rest of the trip. The two buildings were about a block apart and we sort of took our time since Squad A and B had to secure the second building first.
The second building was built the same way as the first one but the people inside acted very different. Nobody shot at us as we approached so we approached slowly but cautiously and I opened the front door.
It was quiet inside but there were clearly people since I could hear dull thudding from the upper levels. They seemed to be getting fainter though.
"Seems like they're moving up doesn't it?" I asked Zone.
"Yeah, my guess is that there were about two guys who just went up to floor number three." he said.
"Well, floor three it is then" said Emi.
We went up the stairs quickly this time since we were sure there was nobody on the second floor. But as we neared the third floor we could definitely hear people up there. They were trying to be quiet since they weren't talking and the sounds were more muffled meaning they were only shifting around.
"Looks like they're waiting for us." I said.
"They're all surrounding the corridor. Guess the two rooms weren't big enough to hold thirty people." said Zone.
"Well, let's go then." I gave the order and then I charged ahead of them.
For the moment I totally forgot about everything Emi and I just talked about and I was a monster. I ran up the stairs and took all of them by surprise. They planned an ambush, but instead I ambushed THEM.
This time most of the guys had knives. It didn't matter. They were no match for me.
I dashed straight through the corridor and slashed eight men in about two seconds. It wasn't hard because they were all crowded around the tight corridor. All I had to do was bring my blade across back and forth and the blood flowed freely. I saw one guy try to bury his dagger into my back and I used Lionheart as a defensive weapon by sticking it straight out. The guy's momentum carried him right through my blade and I basically shish ka bobbed him.
My enemies were slaughtered. I don't know how to explain it. It's like I was controlled but out of control. I kept my calm, but the rate at which the drug dealers were falling was insane. It was a bloodbath.
Emi and Zone didn't even have to do anything. I was four and a half feet, fifty five pounds of pure carnage. Anybody who got in my way would die.
As quickly as the killer instinct came, it disappeared. I turned back to Emi and Zone who were standing just above the stairs looking very dumbfounded.
"Sorry...I guess we can go then." I said.
They looked at me with wide eyes. I felt extremely uncomfortable so I just walked down the stairs. The stench of blood reeked from the corridor and I tried not to think about it. I just did what I was supposed to do.
We were walking back to where the transports had agreed to pick us up. It was closer than where we were dropped off but not directly to the second building. The reason being that the road close to the second building was so beaten up that it was almost unpassable.
"I was thinking, Squall. Maybe...if you'd like to of course...meet up with Zone and I at the park sometime?" Emi asked. I didn't expect the question at all after how ruthlessly I had acted.
"Sure" I said. I was just confused at the time and thought that accepting her offer would be the right thing to do.
"Cool, see you the next Open day at three? There's a few of us there and we usually go to the city for some ice cream." Zone didn't seem to mind either.
"Okay, three sounds good." I said. Open days were certain scheduled days where the cadets like us could go out and have some fun. We were restricted to go no further than the city which wasn't really a problem since there was tons of stuff to do in the city. I went out only once up to that point. The first Open day they had I went and it was the most boring day of my life so I never went on any of them ever again. Instead, I'd just stay at the Garden and train...yep I know, I was one hell of a loser...
After that we didn't talk much. But then again, the transports were almost right in front of our faces by that time so it was time to leave anyways.
I had a good time with Emi and Zone. I thought for a moment that Emi had been disgusted by my behavior but that didn't seem to be the case. For the first time in my life, I cared about what others thought about me. I didn't want Emi and Zone to shun me because of the slaughter I had created.
But boy would Ellone be happy...seems like I finally found some friends.
AN: 'kay, sorry once again for not updating...I promise the next chapter will be up quicker! Wanted this chappie to have a mixed bag sort of feel to it in terms of character emotion. Trust me, things will become a lot clearer later on! =P Please please please leave a review! SHOUT OUT TIME!
remote mine: Glad you enjoyed that chapter =) My guess is that you'd like this one too, it's along the same lines hahaha. Keep reading and keep reviewing! This story's still got a lot more to go!
Selphie Tilmitt-Kinneas : You'll probably find some errors in this chapter! I spread this chapter out so much, I'd start writing, stop, start, stop, etc. So I'm pretty sure this one is more messed up that the last! John Steiner has nothing to do with the Steiner in FF9...I have yet to play FF9 hahaha FF9, FFX-2 and FFXI are the only FF's I haven't played =P
Lugia-mew: Thanks for the compliment, but sorry for the slow update heh...Hope you like this chapter too!
Ari-Morrigan: Hopefully, you'll catch this chapter! Yeah, Rinoa's sister is going to play a huge role in this story. The whole story is going to get MUCH darker so this is just a small taste of what is to come. It is anything BUT light and cheery! But don't worry, things won't stay that way in the original metasite =P Thanks for the review!
Etherealist: It's alright, as long as you leave a review! Thanks for the compliment and hope you can get online more often!
angel-brokensorrow: Thanks a lot! That's an interesting tip, I tried it in this chapter so look out for it! As always, I encourage constructive criticism =)
That's all for now, and just wanted to wish everybody a late Happy New Year! Don't forget to review!